Consumer Rights: MSE Article discussion (DO NOT ASK CONSUMER QUESTIONS HERE)

Funtime_Fabio

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me with this one? Last Friday I gave a £500 deposit for some private healthcare. I've now changed my mind & want to refund my £500, mainly because they have told me yesterday (Monday) that the total price is going to be £600 more than I originally agreed when paying my deposit! I think it was a genuinely honest error on their part, but nonetheless it is still an error & additional cost I can't afford.
Does anyone know my rights? In any instance, I should be able to ask for my deposit back within 7 days as it was a transaction (payment) made over the phone shouldn't I (although my 'patient agreement' was made in person)?
However, as the price was incorrectly stated on this 'patient agreement', I should surely be able to get my deposit back anyway? A company surely can't increase the cost of a service if the deposit has already been paid for an agreed lesser price?
Please help!
Thanks.

wealdroam

Funtime_Fabio wrote: »

Hi, I wonder if anyone can help me with this one? Last Friday I gave a £500 deposit for some private healthcare. I've now changed my mind & want to refund my £500, mainly because they have told me yesterday (Monday) that the total price is going to be £600 more than I originally agreed when paying my deposit! I think it was a genuinely honest error on their part, but nonetheless it is still an error & additional cost I can't afford.
Does anyone know my rights? In any instance, I should be able to ask for my deposit back within 7 days as it was a transaction (payment) made over the phone shouldn't I (although my 'patient agreement' was made in person)?
However, as the price was incorrectly stated on this 'patient agreement', I should surely be able to get my deposit back anyway? A company surely can't increase the cost of a service if the deposit has already been paid for an agreed lesser price?
Please help!
Thanks.

Have you asked for a refund yet?

Funtime_Fabio

wealdroam wrote: »

Have you asked for a refund yet?

Yes, and they refused due to it contravening the terms in the 'agreement'. This is true, however my argument is that this agreement is essentially for a product/service that, as of yesterday, has dramatically increased in price - therefore this 'agreement' surely become dull & void - and I'm due my £500 deposit refunded.

Just had a lengthy discussion with them & they're not budging at the moment.

cilla_khan

i signied a 3 year contract monthly payments on friday and monday i phoned to cancel but said no the conract doesnt state i can cancel and no cooling offf period please advise

oliverhale

oliverhale wrote: »

Thanks for the info.

In this case it was a second hand PS3 which broke within a month, has been repaired, and now has broken again after five weeks. I have been offered an exchange but they categorically refused to refund me. I have contacted head office to see if I can get anywhere with them, saying I would be willing to accept a reduction on the purchase price.

If unsuccessful I will have to accept the exchange, which is okay, but if previous performance is anything to go by, the new one will break too!

Just an update.

I contacted customer services and quoted the Sales of Goods Act. They contacted the store and told them to give me a refund!

Excellent result. Thanks for the help moneysaving expert.

bethabbott

We purchased a Caple cooker hood online in May, ready for our kitchen rebuild. Ducting was installed into the suspended ceiling, and the cooker hood was installed in late July finally. It doesn't extract.

I videoed it in situ, showing how it didn't extract - the design of the hood doesn't allow much air to move from the sides of the hood through into the central column. I contacted the retailer; he told me that I would need to contact the manufacturer and get them to send a service engineer to check it out. The retailer told me that if it was found to be an installation problem, then I would need to pay for the engineer's callout fees. No estimate of the service engineer's fees could be provided.

I contacted Caple, the manufacturer, and spoke to someone that I was told was their head engineer. He stated over the phone, "...it sounds like a problem with the ducting installation." Hmmm. Warning bells.

My builder detached the flue from the ducting into the ceiling and we tested it again (holding a bit of paper underneath the hood to test its drawing capabilities) - nothing was different. Basically, the design of the cooker hood doesn't work - it doesn't draw out steam or smoke. It's one of those gorgeous, flat, linear-shaped ones, rather than a funnel shape. There is the most minimal of gaps between the sides of the hood and the central column, which kills any possibility of drawing. What's the point of having an extractor hood if it doesn't extract?

Caple's customer service then got back to me to schedule an engineer's visit - they estimated it would be a three-week wait.

I weighed up the value of going through the pantomime of an engineer's visit, which I would then probably be billed for, and then still have an extractor hood that wouldn't work. I decided not to engage the service engineer's services, and instead had our builder locally source a funnel-shaped hood that did the job.

I'll be shooting new video of our now fully-functioning extractor hood, and will make a DVD of it 'before and after' to send to the retailer, for them to forward on to the manufacturer. I will also post it on YouTube, for their ease of viewing in case they don't have equipment in situ for such purposes.

I want to also post the extractor hood (at a whopping cost of £22, it seems) back to the retailer, and tell them that this hood is not fit for purpose, and ask for a full refund. Am I within my consumer rights to do so, please? That's the big question.

I've spoken to several friends about extractor hoods since, and have been really surprised at how varied people's satisfaction is with such - most who have the 'flat' type hoods say that they don't work - I'd be interested to know if this was generally the case, or if it's just Caple's design that's lacking.

I am morally not happy about trying to sell this cooker hood on when it doesn't work sufficiently. I don't even want to Freecycle it, as it will still be unfit for purpose. I would absolutely hate to take it to the metal skip at the recycling centre here - what a complete waste of money and the earth's resources !

I accept that I'll be out of pocket to a certain extent, but feel it's abysmal that an inadequate product should be in circulation, and that the consumer should pay for the privilege of keeping it there when it doesn't work.

Please let me know what my legal rights are in terms of a refund, and how it might be possible to prove to the manufacturer that their design doesn't work.

Many thanks for any help!

Teleport

Hi,

Not sure what my rights are on this one, but here's the situation.

Mini Babybel are currently running a promotion for free spacehoppers,
when you buy special packs as collect the tokens.

We don't normally buy this type of cheese, but thought it was a good offer and bought 3 packs (enough for 1 hopper).

Now checking their website (babybelspacehoppers-co-uk) there is a message saying they've exhaused their stock and their won't be any more.

Their T&Cs cover the eventuality of depleated stock, but as I only bought their product because of the offer, I feel a little conned. Surely it's their duty to ensure they can fulfil all valid applications.

Any info where I stand consumer law-wise would be appreciated.

tsugi

I bought a back-up drive from Play.com - from what I understand; with electrical goods, if it's opened - there's probably no refund.

The site describes the drive as 'fully compatible with Macs" then describes the joys of 'automatic backing-up'

Suffice it to say the drive does NOT work with Apple's back-up system (Time Machine). I contacted the manufacturer, who said they do NOT support Apple problems. Apple said the drive does not work properly with Time Machine.

I've emailed the details to Play, but thought I'd check where the good and the wise think I stand. It's one of those: "If I hadn't opened it, I wouldn't know it doesn't work as advertised"

dinkabelle

My husband bought me a watch from a local jewellers 8 days ago (not a really cheapy £100 worth). A few days after he bought it I noticed that it had lost time, I put the watch back to the right time, but yesterday my husband noticed that it was wrong again and so took it back to the jewellers this morning. He accepted that it may need a new battery and agree to have a new one put it, but when he said if it didnt work he wanted his money back, he was told by them that the shop didn't do refunds.
I thought that if the product was found faulty within a certain time we can demand and expect to get our money back! Am I wrong?

nilyde

Hi,
I have bought a coat from zara with the tag price of 59.95 in euros. When i got to the till,the staff had told me that i have to pay £69.99. I asked why its dearer when converted to pounds and she could not explain it to me. So i ask to speak to the store manager. When she arrived he was extremely rude and ask "what's your problem?" and i replied "why the £ conversion was dearer?" and she replied "that is how we priced it." So at the end i paid for it for all the customer was getting annoyed for they feel why i was taking a long time with my query.
Then when i got home,i told my bf what happened and he rang the Covent garden shop and ask for the manager. As expected,she was so rude and was talking over my bf. On that conversation,she basically said that they can charge whatever they want!
So after that,we decided to email them a complain with regards with the store manager's rudeness and the error on the pricing and payment of the coat.
Finally,we received a letter from them stating that again they can charge whatever they want to cover costs in transporting the garment from spain to uk but there was no mention why it was adverstised on their shop at 59.95 euros and i end up paying £69.99?
Can someone help me please,i have another 2 weeks to return the coat.
Thanks in advance,
nilyde